Ancient History of Zamboanga

The principal peoples of the Philippine archipelago were the Negritos, proto-Malays, and Malays. The Negritos are believed to have migrated by land bridges some 30,000 years ago, during the last glacial period. Later migrations were by water and took place over several thousand years in repeated movements before and after the start of the Christian era.²

Not much is known of the early inhabitants of the Mindanao Island peninsula during this time line. Although Western time line puts Philippine history in accordance to their discovery of the islands, this short-sighted view point cannot erase the factual history of the people who discovered and inhabited the islands long before the western world arrived. The barangay method of government of these peoples, in use for over a thousand years, was the biggest dividing line between their nation of small enclaves and the present geographically defined country that is The Philippines.

900s A.D. - Western timeline is pushed back a few hundred years

A Philippine Document - The Laguna Copperplate Inscription (LCI) reveals a literate population.

1000s A.D.

The vegetation and flowers are growing profusely and beautifully, just waiting to be discovered.

1100s A.D.

The vegetation and flowers are growing profusely and beautifully, still waiting to be discovered.

1200s A.D. � The Beginning: "Land of Flowers"

In the beginning, there was Jambangan (not Samboangan, as others might insist - it came later as a Spanish inflection to their pronunciation) the ancient place that was settled in the 1200^s by the Subanons, who are considered by historians to be the founding fathers of the place they called the �Land of Flowers.� (interesting historical note: The mainland of the North American continent was first sighted by the Spanish explorer and treasure hunter Don Juan Ponce de Leon on Easter, March 27, 1513. He claimed the land for Spain and named it La Florida, meaning "Land of Flowers".) They are of Malayan decent who traveled away from their homeland in Indonesia to find their new home on the tip of the Mindanao island peninsula. They are a farming-based people who choose to settle along the banks of the rivers (called suba in their native tongue) and consequently derived their ethnic name from it. The Subanons (�People of the River�) mostly grew root and tree crops, along with their rice staple, which they still do to this day.

One can only imagine how Jambangan must have looked back then, with its profusion of native vegetation and flowers. It is said that Marco Polo�s ship probably spent some time exploring the coasts of Mindanao and Sulu in 1292 while waiting many months on the coast of Sumatra, Indonesia for a favorable monsoon to deliver a royal bride from the court of Kublai Khan, a grandson of Genghis Khan and supreme leader of the vast empire of Mongolia (1215-94), to the Khan of Persia and may have made contact with the new inhabitants of the region. The monsoons around this area of Southeast Asia were constant and reliable, well known to all the seasoned mariners and widely credited for the profusion of early commerce in the area.² The Chinese have historical documentation of trade between the Malayan transplants who occupied the Sulu Archipelago and their residents, mainly from the Fujian, or Fukien, Province that started during this century and continued on to this day. Astoundingly, Filipino archivist credit this era's Chinese connection with Fujian as the sole contributor to the lineage of ninety percent (90%) of Chinese-Filipino (Chino-Pinoy or ChiNoy) ancestry. The trade monopoly between Fujian, China and The Philippines, especially with the early Malay settlers who congregated in the Sulu Archipelago region, is a testament to the very strong position ancient Jambangan enjoys today as the international business trade center for all of south-western Mindanao and the Sulu Archipelago.

NOTE: Koxinga (see 1600s A.D.) is from Fujian and his threat to Spanish rule in the Philippines reflects this ancient trade monopoly.

Story Continues: History of Zamboanga - circa 1300s Read on...

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